Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

No shortage of stories this week—soccer, other sports, news all are overflowing with things to discuss.

Let’s jump in, but feel free to either read through or flip around as you see fit!

Here’s the Table of Contents.

Table of Contents

• The Most Curious Thing This Week: Spirit Crush Kansas City

• The Photo Bay

  • Rebeca Bernal Dodges Danger

  • Hal Hershfelt’s “OMG” Face

  • Gift Monday’s Fun Day

  • Lo’eau Labonta: Always Yappin’ (Complimentary)

  • Kaylie Collins Says Hi

  • Trinity Rodman’s Family Moment

  • Esme Morgan and Sandy MacIver: BFFs Celebrate Toge …

• Other Takes and Things of Note

  • Is Utah for real? Former Doormat Surging Early

  • Thank your local keeper! Campbell, Atkinson, Bloomer, Silkowitz Shine

• Something Good I Ate: Brooklyn Square Pizza in NJ

And here’s Peach!

The Most Curious Thing This Week

It’s the 4-0 drubbing the Washington Spirit handed reigning NWSL Shield winners the Kansas City Current on Friday in DC.

The Spirit have had a statistical profile indicating the goals would come, as well as a new good luck charm in the iconic Jose the Coyote. And while the Current have had no shortage of struggles so far this season, the sheer amount of talent on their roster still makes them a daunting foe.

But that was no problem for the Spirit, who shut down the Current, including on a handful of dangerous chances.

Early on, it looked as though a returning star would antagonize the crowd with a quick goal.

In her first match back in DC since leaving the Spirit to join Kansas City this offseason, midfielder Croix Bethune capitalized on a miscue from her former teammate Hal Hershfelt. 

The ball took an errant bounce back toward the Spirit goal, allowing Bethune the chance to snag it and jet past Spirit defender Lucia Di Guglielmo for a breakaway.

Speeding into the box with a mostly open net, Bethune had only another former teammate and longtime training foe to beat: Spirit goalkeeper Sandy MacIver. 

But the Scottish international put Bethune’s chance to rest, making a diving stop that allowed her to basically sit in front of the ball and prevent Bethune from poking it under her into the net.

In the pictures, it looked as though MacIver may have even been smiling, knowing that she would make the crowd roar in approval at a stop of a former friend-turned-newfound foe.

MacIver said her thought in the moment was: “Don’t let Croix score.”

"I think it kind of helped that it was Croix, because in training, she’s always the one that likes to go around the keeper. So I didn’t want to commit myself to it. And then, I think in 1 v 1 situations you kind of hope it hits you and luckily, today it hit me,” MacIver said.

After the game, Spirit forward Trinity Rodman talked about the challenge of that save after being on the other end of a few like that in training.

“A keeper like Sandy, she’s very good at studying players, knowing exactly what they’re gonna do.”

Rodman laughed at the difference between training and game day.

“It’s annoying, in training, that’s for sure. Great in games!”

The save served as, effectively, a turning point in Friday’s game, as just eleven minutes later, Rodman found open space on the left wing to serve a cross over the middle to her teammate Leicy Santos, who potted the first goal of the night for the Spirit.

It was Rodman’s first assist of the season, and she only had to wait a little over twenty more minutes for her first goal of the season, as she picked up a fumbled corner kick that fell out of the hands of Current goalkeeper Lorena and quickly pivoted to sneak the ball into the net.

Out of the break, the Spirit were able to keep their foot on the gas, with Santos nabbing her second goal of the night in the 56^th minute. A long Hershfelt pass down the right half-space to a streaking Sofia Cantore allowed the Italian to cross the ball into a crowd in front of the net. It ping-ponged off the head of Current defender Gabrielle Robinson to the foot of Santos, who hit one off Lorena and into the net.

The Current had two major chances to get one back, both coming off the foot of striker Ally Sentnor. The 22-year-old Massachusetts native put one in the net in the 68^th minute but had a would-be goal called back for being offside. And in stoppage time, she uncorked one from well outside the 18-yard-box that doinked off the crossbar.

But with the Spirit holding onto a 3-0 lead, it was the emerging Paraguayan wunderkind Claudia Martínez who put the exclamation point on an emphatic Spirit win.

In the 75^th minute, Spirit winger Rosemonde Kouassi found Martínez near the top of the arc outside the 18-yard-box. Martínez had drifted a long way from Current defender Kayla Sharples to give herself plenty of space. Sharples caught up to her, and the 18-year-old tried to go to her right to get space for a shot on net, but hit one that Sharples blocked.

Martínez showed instincts well beyond her years, immediately reining in the deflected ball and moving left before sliding in a finish that trickled underneath a diving Lorena. It was the young Paraguayan’s first NWSL goal, and a clear sign that she is beginning to tap into her immense potential.

The Spirit paid a reported $950,000 transfer fee to Martínez’s club to acquire her, and while she had not scored yet, Martínez has still only played one full half of NWSL soccer, having come on as a second-half substitute in each of her six games so far.

In her brief windows, however, Martínez has excelled. In Friday’s game, she racked up five total shots in her 26 minutes on the pitch, and according to American Soccer Analysis, she leads all NWSL players (at least those who have played more than 20 total minutes) in expected goals per 96 minutes played.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, her today scoring, because I think she’s adapting super quick,” Spirit coach Adrián González said. “I’m actually very impressed because usually it takes time for an international player to understand what this league means. And being that young, I think she’s learning super quick and especially getting the pace to play in this competition.”

“I feel she’s gonna score goals,” he added.

This is her first goal, but at this rate, there will be many more. And soon.

It was a ruthless performance from the Spirit. And postgame, players could feel how that approach led them to success.

“The first and second balls, we were relentless,” Hal Hershfelt said. “Like, we kind of knew going into the game that it might be ugly in the middle, especially. I mean, there were bodies flying at one point, lots of fouls. But at the end of the day, it’s whoever is first to the ball and kind of shows more effort going for it wins and I think we did that today.”

On the other end, Kansas City was left to pick up the pieces, with the team looking increasingly listless despite mosly keeping the core of their Shield-winning roster from last year intact. 

New coach Chris Armas already has come under fire from fans and media for the team’s early struggles.

“Goals change games, guys. We know that,” Armas said. “And if we could’ve nicked a few, it looks one way, and then we were in an uphill battle in a tough place to play against a really good team.”

He was asked point blank by one reporter if he felt his job was in jeopardy.

“Listen, I have not thought that. I don’t spend one bit of energy thinking my job’s on the line. We put ourselves in this job and it’s always about results. So if that ever comes, that’s part of the business. But no, I don’t spend a lot of time or energy thinking about that,” Armas said.

Kansas City will be back on the road next weekend with a tilt Saturday in North Carolina against the Courage.

Washington, meanwhile, stays home but will have three games in just over a week, with a home game on Wednesday against Racing Louisville, followed by a weekend matchup Saturday night on the road against the Orlando Pride.

The Photo Bay

I was able to break out a rented lens with a much longer zoom on it, so some of these shots are more detailed or from further away then normal.

Rebeca Bernal Dodges Danger

This shot from Kansas City’s Lo’eau Labonta looked like it might pose danger for the Spirit’s Rebeca Bernal, so she turned away and pulled a heck of a face while keeping herself away from the worst of it.

Hal Hershfelt’s “OMG” Face

The Spirit’s resident queen of the emotes, midfielder Hal Hershfelt, pulled a face that felt like a pretty apt one for the reaction many fans probably had to the Spirit racking up a 4-0 win against the Current.

Gift Monday’s Fun Day

It took until the second half for Spirit striker Gift Monday to come on, but she looked like she was having plenty of fun with teammate Tamara Bolt while waiting for pregame festivities.

Lo’eau Labonta: Always Yappin’ (Complimentary)

Lo’eau Labonta, aka the “Celly Queen,” is a fan favorite both in Kansas City and on the road. And her outgoing, chatty nature on and off the pitch is no small part of it. Even before Friday’s match, it was hard to find a picture where she wasn’t talking.

Kaylie Collins Says Hi

If you didn’t get the chance to listen to the interview Spirit backup goalkeeper Kaylie Collins did with the “Hey Spirits” podcast, give it a listen, since it is a delightful chat.

But in that conversation, she mentioned how warm-ups are, in effect, her game, and her time to give it her all to help the team.

That still didn’t stop her from taking a sec before launching practice corner kicks to wave hello to some fans cheering for her.

Trinity Rodman’s Family Moment

Before the game where she racked up her first goal and first assist of the season, Spirit forward Trinity Rodman was honored by the club for completing 100 matches in the NWSL, all of them with the Spirit.

Members of Rodman’s family joined her on the field for the commemoration, including her mom, who frequently attends Spirit games, as well as a couple of her younger relatives.

Rodman seemed particularly happy to share that moment with her family.

Esme Morgan and Sandy MacIver: BFFs Celebrate Together!

Spirit defender Esme Morgan and goalkeeper Sandy MacIver are almost inseparable. They are very clearly very close friends, frequently posting social media clips together (and they have also been clear, despite some fan speculation, that they are just friends, nothing more.)

So when the Spirit scored their first goal of the night and the two of them were the only ones at a bit of a remove from the action on the other side of the pitch, they ran to each other, with Morgan jumping up into MacIver’s arms for a big, celebratory hug.

Other Takes and Things of Note

Is Utah for real? 

The Utah Royals are playing some good soccer right now. Through week five of the NWSL season, they sit tied for third in the league after a 3-0 pasting of Seattle Reign on Sunday night, even holding the goal differential advantage for that spot.

The Royals showed off their offensive firepower, with two goals in the first seven minutes from Paige Cronin and Narumi Miura, respectively. There’s a reason why, with nine goals and 9.2 expected goals this season, we can say that on the offensive end, this is actually what Utah is capable of. 9.2 xG in FotMob’s calculation of the stat ranks fifth among all clubs so far, albeit with the caveat that a few teams have still only played five games.

It's on defense where the questions linger. Utah has conceded six goals, but the expected stats indicate they’ve allowed an expected goals total of 9.6, tied for the fourth-worst total in the league, and tied with Portland Thorns for the biggest defensive overperformance so far this season.

While primary fullbacks Tatumn Milazzo and Janni Thomsen have been above average in the composite defending stat g- as kept by American Soccer Analysis, the overperformance in team defense is a bit of a concern considering the competition.

Utah’s other two wins have come against Boston Legacy’s anemic offense, which has scored one goal in five games, and against Chicago Stars, last year’s doormat and a club that has shown few signs of improvement over their 2025 performance.

While Utah’s improvements could be enough to vault them into the playoffs in a crowded middle of the NWSL table, my answer for the time being as to whether they’re for real? Ehhh…

Thank your local keeper!

As it turns out, Sandy MacIver may not be the only NWSL keeper making folks feel the need for an apology form.

The GK Union must have sent out a memo over the international break to tell everyone to stand on their heads this weekend because some of these performances were absurd.

The Houston Dash fell 1-0 at home to North Carolina as an Ashley Sanchez goal made all the difference, but Dash keeper Jane Campbell proved that there was good reason to call her back into U.S. national team camp this past international break. Campbell made seven saves, including two on goals that the nerd stats put at 0.6 xGOT or higher (i.e. that given not just the distance from goal, but the type of shot and the person taking it, would go into the net at least 60% of the time.)

MacKenzie Arnold saved seven shots for Portland, helping them build a 2-0 lead that withstood a late Angel City goal from Prisca Chilufya to help the Thorns climb into sole possession of second on the NWSL table. 

As anemic as Boston Legacy’s goal output has been this season, they came to life Saturday evening against Chicago, putting up well over two expected goals. But Stars keeper Katie Atkinson worked overtime to keep Boston down, including a sequence of three dangerous shots from the Legacy.

Boston’s Alba Caño blasted one high above a leaping Atkinson’s hand, but hit the post. It bounced out to Amanda Gutierres, who one-timed one right at Atkinson, who made a two-handed deflection. Yet another rebound went to Assata Traoré, who tried to put one in but had a shot that ran right into a diving Atkinson. From there, the Stars were able to give her some help and clear it.

Atkinson, who under her maiden name Katie Lund spent the last five seasons at Racing Louisville, made eight saves total, snagging a clean sheet in a 2-0 win and likely cementing her spot as Chicago’s number one goalkeeper ahead of struggling veteran Alyssa Naeher.

Her successor at Racing Louisville, Jordyn Bloomer, put up more still, saving nine shots in the club’s 3-2 win at home over the Orlando Pride.

The 28-year-old has struggled this season, but Friday marked a return to the scorching form she found in the back half of the 2025 season after winning the starting job for the first time in her career.

But only one goalkeeper tied the league record for most saves in an NWSL regular season game, and that was Bay FC’s Jordan Silkowitz. A Northern Virginia native and at this point a friend of the newsletter considering how many times I've run into her and her family at games, Silkowitz made a whopping 12 saves as Bay fell 3-0 in New Jersey to Gotham FC.

Most of them came after she took a cleat to the face, and after it looked like she might leave the game from the blood in her mouth and the cuts on her cheek.

Bay’s back line in front of her has been hemorrhaging talent, forcing the club to press backups and journeywomen into service. 

All starting defenders from their 2024 playoff appearance—fullbacks Alyssa Malonson and Caprice Dydasco and center backs Abby Dahlkemper and Emily Menges—are out of action. Dahlkemper and Menges have been out since mid-2025 on maternity leave, Dydasco joined them this offseason, and Malonson tore her ACL shortly before the start of this season.

As far as what that means for defense…to quote Rocky from Project Hail Mary, “bad bad bad.”

In a 2-0 defeat to the Washington Spirit, Silkowitz made a career-high nine saves, many of which almost singlehandedly kept the club afloat for most of the match, with only a Gift Monday goal for the Spirit with a few minutes left putting the game out of reach.

This weekend, her 12-save performance included one goal that came because her defense conceded a penalty kick (which Gotham’s Esther González converted) and an own goal off Bay defender Karlie Lema in the 20^th minute. Adding insult to injury, Lema fell backward over a diving Silkowitz, driving her cleat straight into her goalkeeper’s face.

After a check from trainers to address the blood in her mouth and cleat mark cuts on her face, Silkowitz made nine more saves while staying in for the remainder of the game.

Playing goalkeeper is a thankless, lonely task—but this week, the NWSL’s keepers showed how much of a difference they can make and just how far they’ll go to do it.

It was George Orwell who warned in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four that “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”

That novel has become ever more prophetic in over 75 years since its publication, but I don’t think that even he had Jordan Silkowitz getting trampled by a teammate and then tying the single-game save record in mind.

Something Good I Ate

Let’s talk pizza, shall we?

I am from New Jersey, and each time I go home, I find that more and more places in the area of the state I call home have mastered the pizza arts.

Last year, The Sauce in Oceanport taught me what a good pizza maker can do with semolina crust.

This time around, on a visit home earlier this month, it was Brooklyn Square Pizza that showed off what it can do.

The pizzeria started in Jackson, NJ, by owner Pietro “Peter” Grippo has expanded to its fifth location, opening in Shrewsbury in February.

My family has long insisted I needed to try their “Upside Down Square” pizza, a variation on the doughy pies made famous by many Italian pizzerias in Brooklyn. At Brooklyn Square, the upside-down variation has the mozzarella go on first, with the tomato sauce and pecorino romano cheese going on top. 

It is a masterpiece. The tomato sauce has zip to it, with ooey-gooey, stretchy cheese luring you in for one bite after another. The crust, while thick, straddles crunchy and chewy with ease, avoiding the burnt crust that ends up as a sad hallmark of weaker-quality pizza joints.

I am not alone on this one. The Star-Ledger rated Brooklyn Square Pizza as the Best Pizzeria in New Jersey.

They have every reason to. I have had a lot of pizza in my life, but Brooklyn Square may be the best.

Just a note: Any opinions I express here are solely mine, and do not reflect the views of my employer, my coworkers, or anybody else affiliated with me. The newsletter is not monetized in any way and everything in here is written and reported with my own resources on my own time outside of my working hours unless specifically noted otherwise. “I’m Curious” is just for me, the author, and for you, the reader. Thank you for reading. I’m glad you’re here.